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And I made it to (reached) thirty years old. = Et j'ai atteint l'âge de trente ans.

Be careful with prepositions, as you have to translate the whole meaning, and not just each preposition individually. The construction à + age refers to a particular point in time someone is of that age when you do something or something happens.

I heard this in French and had to transcribe it, and i wrote "Ai-je les fêtes à trente ans?", which i took to mean "do i have the parties at age thirty?" - is this a valid french sentence? Even if not, I'm quite amused at my ability to hear something competely different from what was intended.

I think the slow version of the speech is incorrect. Am I think only one to hear plaît instead of l'ai, which is clear on the normal speed? That's the first time the slow speech has been less clear for me.

I'm starting to think that a big part of learning French is figuring out how to deal with these homophones. If Duolingo always sheltered us from this confusion, we would never learn to deal with it. I think, the harder it is now, the easier it will be later.

(Ironically, when I typed this, auto-correct changed homophone to homophobe! :-D So English has its fair share of confusion!

When you listen to it you will hear the "t" sound (which is why some people thought they heard fete) which indicates the feminine form with an e at the end. If it were the masculine "fait" it would sound like fay since the t would not be pronounced.

How come that earlier in the same exercise my translation of ‘did it’ was marked wrong, and now when I answered ‘made it’ as Duolingo gave as correct previously, ‘did it’ is given as an alternative correct answer? These inconsistencies are thoroughly annoying

Because in the past tense with avoir when the direct object pronoun is before the past participle of the verb , the participle has to agree with the gender and number of the pronoun. Faite is the feminine form. See Jakowski above. It is always a good idea to read a whole thread before asking a question. It's a poor sentence in any event, but it gives you no clue that the 'l' is a contracyion of la. Were it le, it would be fait.

as daddexter and thethirdcoast commented, I would think that "and I have made it to thirty (years old)," should also be correct. It sure makes sense and is a term we American English speakers use. For example, a person that may have had a rough, sickly or dangerous life may say on their birthday, either jokingly or seriously, "I made it to thirty years old!" As a matter of fact, before my mother passed away from cancer 2 weeks after her 70th birthday, she said, "well, I made it to 70!"